Registration 2013

[Littleboy]

Huh, one must have dropped out between this afternoon and now. Wonder who.

[JB987]

Looks like FIRST has been busy brainstorming reconfigurations. Check out slide 8...

http://www.nefirst.org/2012/07/28/town-hall-meeting-ct-recap/

Not crazy about what appears to be a disproportionate allocation of CMP slots for international teams in the near future.

[Kpchem]

Originally Posted by JB987

Looks like FIRST has been busy brainstorming reconfigurations. Check out slide 8...

http://www.nefirst.org/2012/07/28/town-hall-meeting-ct-recap/

Not crazy about what appears to be a disproportionate allocation of CMP slots for international teams in the near future.

What scares me more than anything else about that model is the number of events it would require teams to attend. Under this system, a team that attends CMP is looking at five events. 2 districts + district CMP + SuperRegional + CMP. I understand that there are teams that do it right now, but IIRC fewer that number is below 10 teams, and most of those do it by choice (i.e.: MI/MAR teams that choose to go to an outside regional), and this new systems has over 200 teams doing that.

That's a lot of time for students and mentors to miss, no matter how you look at it.

Having said that, I like the idea of a smaller 240 team CMP. It leads to having divisions where you can actually play with/against most of the other teams, which you can't currently do now with 100 team divisions.

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by JB987

Looks like FIRST has been busy brainstorming reconfigurations. Check out slide 8...

http://www.nefirst.org/2012/07/28/town-hall-meeting-ct-recap/

Not crazy about what appears to be a disproportionate allocation of CMP slots for international teams in the near future.

My question is, how big are these super regional's that they will have 54 teams from them moving on to the championship/how are they going to decide which 54 teams? Are we sure that the super-regional is an event? It could just be a geographical labeling used to separate teams in an organized manner, I feel like that makes a lot more sense.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by JB987

Not crazy about what appears to be a disproportionate allocation of CMP slots for international teams in the near future.

Well considering that international teams include Canada it is not as bad as it seems.

EDIT:
Also what is a flex event?
and It says no changes in awards/medals I am pretty sure that we have had a lot of complaints about how wimpy the district trophies are....

[rsisk]

flex events are lower cost regionals. They may be held in a high school, the A/V cost/standards are lowered, in the past they would have been B&T vs ship.

[OZ_341]

Another issue with a Super Regional concept is that teams will find out very late in the season that they qualify.
I know this still happens now for late qualifying teams at Week 6 & 7 events, but not for every team. Imagine 200 or so teams struggling to find registration money, make travel arrangements and notifying school boards at the end of Week 7, just 10 days before they have to travel out of state.

This problem was reality last year, for late qualifying MAR teams and would have to be solved before we scale it up for 240 teams.

[MARS_James]

Here is something funny, the totals on the chart are for 2011 with 2013 numbers I believe:

North Super Regional: 704 Teams
East Super Regional: 560 Teams
South Super Regional: 515 Teams
West Super Regional: 551 Teams

I am pretty sure at almost 1/3 of teams the North Super Regional needs to have teams redistributed

[Nemo]

It might be possible to move a state or two into a neighboring region, but I think it would be better to award championship spots proportionally instead of awarding exactly 54 per super regional.

Originally Posted by MARS_James

Here is something funny, the totals on the chart are for 2011 with 2013 numbers I believe:

North Super Regional: 704 Teams
East Super Regional: 560 Teams
South Super Regional: 515 Teams
West Super Regional: 551 Teams

I am pretty sure at almost 1/3 of teams the North Super Regional needs to have teams redistributed

[Doug G]

Originally Posted by OZ_341

Another issue with a Super Regional concept is that teams will find out very late in the season that they qualify.
I know this still happens now for late qualifying teams at Week 6 & 7 events, but not for every team. Imagine 200 or so teams struggling to find registration money, make travel arrangements and notifying school boards at the end of Week 7, just 10 days before they have to travel out of state.

This problem was reality last year, for late qualifying MAR teams and would have to be solved before we scale it up for 240 teams.

This is normal for high school athletics who find out at the end of their season they qualify to go to state championships...

I do think the current timeline for FIRST will have to change... Maybe Championships in June after school gets out? As it is now, many of my team members won't go to the CMP (if we make it there), simply because AP testing is so close.

[PVCpirate]

Originally Posted by Doug G

This is normal for high school athletics who find out at the end of their season they qualify to go to state championships...

In most places, going to the state championship does not involve coming up with $4000, transportation to and from another state for students and a robot, and 2-3 nights at a hotel. There is also typically not a national or world championship for high school sports. FIRST is entirely different in this regard.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Kpchem

That's a lot of time for students and mentors to miss, no matter how you look at it.

Actually, it turns out that our kids missed fewer school days last year than ever before. Both MAR districts we attended were Sat-Sun events (no days missed), NYC Regional was Fri-Sat-Sun (1 day missed for core group only), MAR DCMP had them missing 2 days, and CMP had them missing 3 days - total 5 or 6 days for 5 events.

With this new super-regional concept, tied with a district model, one might imagine more Sat-Sun events.

Originally Posted by Doug G

Maybe Championships in June after school gets out?

Some schools would not permit school travel when school is not in session. But I could imagine mid-May as being a viable option.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Actually, it turns out that our kids missed fewer school days last year than ever before. Both MAR districts we attended were Sat-Sun events (no days missed), NYC Regional was Fri-Sat-Sun (1 day missed for core group only), MAR DCMP had them missing 2 days, and CMP had them missing 3 days - total 5 or 6 days for 5 events.

With this new super-regional concept, tied with a district model, one might imagine more Sat-Sun events.
Some schools would not permit school travel when school is not in session. But I could imagine mid-May as being a viable option.

The problem with mid-May is AP Exams. I think no matter when thigns are scheduled, there will always be some sort of conflict.

[pathew100]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

You left Minnesota off your list... 2 events in 2009, 4 events in 2013. I firmly believe we'll move to a district model sometime in the next couple of years. I doubt it'll happen for 2014 though - we need to build up the volunteer base a lot more to support the number of events a district system has. Maybe after we add one or two more regionals!

Regarding the volunteers, it can happen. When Michigan switched to districts they went from 3 regionals to 6 districts and the state championship.

Michigan requires all teams to supply 2 volunteers to an event each season (It does not have to be events you are participating in as a team).

[Mark McLeod]

So, Bedford is the newest Michigan District to take up the growth to FiM 209 teams.

A Friday/Saturday event though: 05-Apr - 06-Apr-2013

Bedford High School
8285 Jackman Road
Temperance, MI